Attack on the Daman Peninsula. Damansky Island - conflict with China: how did it happen? The breakdown of relations between China and the USSR
On October 7, 1966, amid political disagreements between Maoist China and the Soviet Union, all Chinese students were expelled from the USSR. In general, China was an ally of the USSR, and there were no fundamental or large-scale conflicts between the countries, but some outbreaks of tension were still observed. We decided to recall the five most acute conflicts between the USSR and China.
This is what historians call the diplomatic conflict between the PRC and the USSR, which began in the late 1950s. The peak of the conflict occurred in 1969, while the end of the conflict is considered to be the end of the 1980s. The conflict was accompanied by a split in the international communist movement. Criticism of Stalin in Khrushchev’s report at the end of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the new Soviet course on economic development under the policy of “peaceful coexistence” with capitalist countries displeased Mao Zedong as contradicting the idea of the “Leninist sword” and the entire communist ideology. Khrushchev's policies were called revisionist, and its supporters in the CCP (Liu Shaoqi and others) were repressed during the Cultural Revolution.
The “Great War of Ideas between China and the USSR” (as the conflict was called in the PRC) was started by Mao Zedong in order to strengthen his power in the PRC. During the conflict, the Chinese demanded that the USSR transfer Mongolia to China, demanded permission to create an atomic bomb, “lost territories” and more.
Border conflict on Damansky Island
On March 2 and 15, 1969, in the area of Damansky Island on the Ussuri River, 230 km south of Khabarovsk and 35 km west of the regional center of Luchegorsk, the largest Soviet-Chinese armed clashes took place. Moreover, they were the largest in the modern history of Russia and China.
After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision emerged that borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run through the middle of the main channel of the river. But it also provided for exceptions.
The Chinese used the new border regulations as a reason to revise the Sino-Soviet border. The USSR leadership was ready to do this: in 1964, a consultation was held on border issues, but it ended without results. Due to ideological differences during the “cultural revolution” in China and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when the PRC authorities declared that the USSR had taken the path of “socialist imperialism,” relations became particularly strained.
Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Since the early 1960s, the situation in the island area has been heating up. According to statements from the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons. At first, peasants entered the territory of the USSR at the direction of the Chinese authorities and demonstratively engaged in economic activities there. The number of such provocations increased sharply: in 1960 there were 100, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then Red Guards began to attack border patrols.
On October 20, 1969, new negotiations were held between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC, and the parties managed to reach an agreement on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. But only in 1991 Damansky finally went to the PRC.
In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed or died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers). The losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 500-1000 to 1500 and even 3 thousand people.
Border conflict near Lake Zhalanashkol
This battle is part of the “Daman conflict”; it took place on August 13, 1969 between Soviet border guards and Chinese soldiers who violated the USSR border. As a result, the violators were pushed out of Soviet territory. In China, this border conflict is known as the Terekta Incident, after the name of the river flowing from the Chinese Yumin County towards Lake Zhalanashkol.
Conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway
The conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) occurred in 1929 after the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Xueliang, seized control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was a joint Soviet-Chinese enterprise. During subsequent hostilities, the Red Army defeated the enemy. The Khabarovsk Protocol, signed on December 22, ended the conflict and restored the status of the road that existed before the clashes.
Vietnam-China military conflict
The last serious crisis between China and the USSR occurred in 1979, when the PRC (Chinese army) attacked Vietnam. According to Taiwanese writer Long Yingtai, this act was largely related to the internal political struggle in the Communist Party of China. The then leader of the People's Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping, needed to strengthen his position in the party, and he tried to achieve this with the help of a “small victorious campaign.”
Already from the first days of the war, Soviet specialists, located both in Vietnam and in neighboring countries, began combat activities together with the Vietnamese. In addition to them, reinforcements began to arrive from the USSR. An air bridge between the USSR and Vietnam was established.
The USSR expelled the Chinese embassy from Moscow, and sent its personnel not by plane, but by rail. In fact, after the Ural ridge all the way to the border with China and Mongolia, they could see columns of tanks heading east. Naturally, such preparations did not go unnoticed, and Chinese troops were forced to leave Vietnam and return to their original positions.
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Damansky Island. 1969
After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision emerged that borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run along the middle of the main channel of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the banks, when such a border was formed historically - by treaty, or if one side colonized the second bank before the other began to colonize it.
In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect. However, in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, entered into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border regulations as a reason to revise the Soviet -Chinese border.
The leadership of the USSR was ready to do this; in 1964, a consultation was held on border issues, but it ended without results.
Due to ideological differences during the Cultural Revolution in China and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when the PRC authorities declared that the USSR had taken the path of “socialist imperialism,” relations became particularly strained.
Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Its dimensions are 1500-1800 m from north to south and 600-700 m from west to east (area about 0.74 km²).
During flood periods, the island is completely hidden under water and has no economic value.
Since the early 1960s, the situation in the island area has been heating up. According to statements from the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons.
At first, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and demonstratively engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing livestock, declaring that they were on Chinese territory.
The number of such provocations increased sharply: in 1960 there were 100, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then Red Guards began to attack border patrols.
Such events numbered in the thousands, each of them involving up to several hundred people.
On January 4, 1969, a Chinese provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island (Qiliqindao) with the participation of 500 people.
According to the Chinese version of events, the Soviet border guards themselves staged provocations and beat up Chinese citizens engaged in economic activities where they had always done so.
During the Kirkinsky incident, they used armored personnel carriers to oust civilians and killed 4 of them, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single machine gun shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.
However, it was repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault they occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without the approval of the authorities. The assertion that the events around Damansky Island on March 2 and 15 were the result of an action carefully planned by the Chinese side is now the most widespread; including directly or indirectly recognized by many Chinese historians.
For example, Li Danhui writes that in 1968-1969, the response to Soviet provocations was limited by the directives of the CPC Central Committee; only on January 25, 1969, it was allowed to plan “response military actions” near Damansky Island with the help of three companies. On February 19, the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China agreed to this.
Events of March 1-2 and the following week
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese troops in winter camouflage, armed with AK assault rifles and SKS carbines, crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western shore of the island.
The group remained unnoticed until 10:40, when the 2nd outpost “Nizhne-Mikhailovka” of the 57th Iman border detachment received a report from an observation post that a group of armed people of up to 30 people was moving in the direction of Damansky. 32 Soviet border guards, including the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, went to the scene of events in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and one BTR-60PB. At 11:10 they arrived at the southern tip of the island. The border guards under the command of Strelnikov were divided into two groups. The first group, under the command of Strelnikov, headed towards a group of Chinese military personnel standing on the ice southwest of the island.
The second group, under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov’s group from the southern coast of the island. Strelnikov protested about the border violation and demanded that Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese servicemen raised his hand up, which served as a signal for the Chinese side to open fire on the groups of Strelnikov and Rabovich. The moment of the start of the armed provocation was captured on film by military photojournalist Private Nikolai Petrov. Strelnikov and the border guards who followed him died immediately, and a squad of border guards under the command of Sergeant Rabovich also died in a short battle. Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the surviving border guards.
Having received a report about the shooting on the island, the head of the neighboring 1st outpost “Kulebyakiny Sopki”, senior lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, went to the BTR-60PB and GAZ-69 with 20 soldiers to help. In the battle, Bubenin was wounded and sent the armored personnel carrier to the rear of the Chinese, skirting the northern tip of the island along the ice, but soon the armored personnel carrier was hit and Bubenin decided to go out with his soldiers to the Soviet coast. Having reached the armored personnel carrier of the deceased Strelnikov and boarded it, Bubenin’s group moved along the Chinese positions and destroyed their command post. They began to retreat.
In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed and 14 were injured. The losses of the Chinese side (according to the USSR KGB commission) amounted to 247 people killed
Around 12:00 a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Iman border detachment and its chief, Colonel D.V. Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts. Reinforced squads of border guards were deployed to Damansky, and the 135th Motorized Rifle Division of the Soviet Army with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system was deployed in the rear. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment, numbering 5,000 people, was preparing for combat.
On March 3, a demonstration took place near the Soviet embassy in Beijing. On March 4, the Chinese newspapers People's Daily and Jiefangjun Bao (解放军报) published an editorial "Down with the New Tsars!", blaming the incident on the Soviet troops, who, according to the author of the article, "moved by a clique of renegade revisionists, brazenly invaded Zhenbaodao Island on the Wusulijiang River in Heilongjiang Province of our country, opened rifle and cannon fire on the border guards of the People's Liberation Army of China, killing and wounding many of them." On the same day, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article “Shame on the provocateurs!” According to the author of the article, “an armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border and headed towards Damansky Island. Fire was suddenly opened on the Soviet border guards guarding this area from the Chinese side. There are dead and wounded." On March 7, the Chinese Embassy in Moscow was picketed. Demonstrators also threw ink bottles at the building.
Events March 14-15
On March 14 at 15:00 an order was received to remove border guard units from the island. Immediately after the withdrawal of the Soviet border guards, Chinese soldiers began to occupy the island. In response to this, 8 armored personnel carriers under the command of the head of the motorized maneuver group of the 57th border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel E. I. Yanshin, moved in battle formation towards Damansky; The Chinese retreated to their shore.
At 20:00 on March 14, the border guards received an order to occupy the island. That same night, Yanshin’s group of 60 people in 4 armored personnel carriers dug in there. On the morning of March 15, after broadcasting through loudspeakers on both sides, at 10:00 from 30 to 60 Chinese artillery and mortars began shelling Soviet positions, and 3 companies of Chinese infantry went on the offensive. A fight ensued.
Between 400 and 500 Chinese soldiers took up positions near the southern part of the island and prepared to move behind Yangshin's rear. Two armored personnel carriers of his group were hit, and communication was damaged. Four T-62 tanks under the command of D.V. Leonov attacked the Chinese at the southern tip of the island, but Leonov’s tank was hit (according to various versions, by a shot from an RPG-2 grenade launcher or was blown up by an anti-tank mine), and Leonov himself was killed by a shot from a Chinese sniper when trying to leave a burning car.
What made the situation worse was that Leonov did not know the island and, as a result, Soviet tanks came too close to the Chinese positions. However, at the cost of losses, the Chinese were not allowed to enter the island.
Two hours later, having used up their ammunition, the Soviet border guards were nevertheless forced to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the forces brought into the battle were not enough and the Chinese significantly outnumbered the border guard detachments. At 17:00, in a critical situation, in violation of the instructions of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee not to introduce Soviet troops into the conflict, on the orders of the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Oleg Losik, fire was opened from the then-secret Grad multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).
The shells destroyed most of the material and technical resources of the Chinese group and military, including reinforcements, mortars, and stacks of shells. At 17:10, motorized riflemen of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov went on the attack in order to finally suppress the resistance of the Chinese troops. The Chinese began to retreat from their occupied positions. At about 19:00 several firing points came to life, after which three new attacks were launched, but they were repulsed.
Soviet troops again retreated to their shores, and the Chinese side no longer took large-scale hostile actions on this section of the state border.
In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed or died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers).
The irretrievable losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people. In Baoqing County there is a memorial cemetery where the remains of 68 Chinese soldiers who died on March 2 and 15, 1969 are located. Information received from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.
For their heroism, five military personnel received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Junior Sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.
Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: 3 - Orders of Lenin, 10 - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, 10 - Orders of Glory III degree, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit" .
Settlement and aftermath
Soviet soldiers were unable to return the destroyed T-62 due to constant Chinese shelling. An attempt to destroy it with mortars was unsuccessful, and the tank fell through the ice. Subsequently, the Chinese were able to pull it to their shores and now it stands in the Beijing military museum.
After the ice melted, the exit of the Soviet border guards to Damansky turned out to be difficult and it was necessary to prevent Chinese attempts to capture it with sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, a ceasefire was ordered, apparently to create a favorable background for the negotiations that began the next day at Beijing airport.
Immediately, Damansky and Kirkinsky were occupied by Chinese armed forces.
On September 11 in Beijing, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin, who was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh, and Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai agreed to stop hostile actions and that the troops would remain in their occupied positions. In fact, this meant the transfer of Damansky to China.
On October 20, 1969, new negotiations between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC were held, and an agreement was reached on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Then a series of negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, and in 1991, Damansky Island finally went to the PRC.
Damansky Island, which sparked a border armed conflict, occupies 0.75 square meters in area. km. From south to north it stretches for 1500 - 1800 m, and its width reaches 600 - 700 m. These figures are quite approximate, since the size of the island greatly depends on the time of year. In the spring, Damansky Island is flooded with the waters of the Ussuri River and it is almost hidden from view, and in winter the island rises like a dark mountain on the icy surface of the river.
From the Soviet coast to the island it is about 500 m, from the Chinese coast - about 300 m. In accordance with generally accepted practice, borders on rivers are drawn along the main fairway. However, taking advantage of the weakness of pre-revolutionary China, the tsarist government of Russia was able to draw the border on the Ussuri River in a completely different way - along the water's edge along the Chinese coast. Thus, the entire river and the islands on it turned out to be Russian.
Disputed Island
This obvious injustice persisted after the October Revolution of 1917 and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, but did not affect Sino-Soviet relations for some time. And only at the end of the 50s, when ideological differences arose between the Khrushchev leadership of the CPSU and the CPC, the situation on the border gradually began to worsen. Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders have repeatedly expressed the view that the development of Sino-Soviet relations presupposes a solution to the border problem. The “decision” meant the transfer of certain territories to China, including islands on the Ussuri River. The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the Chinese desire to draw a new border along the rivers and was even ready to transfer a number of lands to the PRC. However, this readiness disappeared as soon as the ideological and then interstate conflict flared up. Further deterioration of relations between the two countries eventually led to open armed confrontation on Damansky.
Disagreements between the USSR and China began in 1956, when Mao condemned Moscow for suppressing unrest in Poland and Hungary. Khrushchev was extremely upset. He considered China a Soviet “creation” that should live and develop under the strict control of the Kremlin. The mentality of the Chinese, who historically dominated East Asia, suggested a different, more equal approach to solving international (especially Asian) problems. In 1960, the crisis intensified even more when the USSR suddenly recalled its specialists from China, who had helped it develop the economy and the Armed Forces. The completion of the process of severing bilateral ties was the refusal of the Chinese communists to participate in the XXIII Congress of the CPSU, which was announced on March 22, 1966. After the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Chinese authorities declared that the USSR had embarked on the path of “socialist revanchism.”
The provocative actions of the Chinese at the border have intensified. From 1964 to 1968, in the Red Banner Pacific border district alone, the Chinese organized more than 6 thousand provocations involving about 26 thousand people. Anti-Sovietism became the basis of the CPC's foreign policy.
By this time, the “cultural revolution” (1966–1969) was already in full swing in China. In China, the Great Helmsman carried out public executions of “saboteurs” who were slowing down “Chairman Mao’s great economic policy of the Great Leap Forward.” But an external enemy was also needed, to whom larger mistakes could be attributed.
KHRUSHCHEV GOT STUPID
In accordance with generally accepted practice, boundaries on rivers are drawn along the main fairway (thalweg). However, taking advantage of the weakness of pre-revolutionary China, the tsarist government of Russia managed to draw a border on the Ussuri River along the Chinese coast. Without the knowledge of the Russian authorities, the Chinese could not engage in either fishing or shipping.
After the October Revolution, the new Russian government declared all “tsarist” treaties with China “predatory and unequal.” The Bolsheviks thought more about the world revolution, which would sweep away all borders, and least of all about state benefit. At that time, the USSR actively assisted China, which was waging a war of national liberation with Japan, and the issue of disputed territories was not considered important. In 1951, Beijing signed an agreement with Moscow, according to which it recognized the existing border with the USSR, and also agreed to the control of Soviet border guards over the Ussuri and Amur rivers.
Without exaggeration, relations between peoples were fraternal. Residents of the border strip visited each other and engaged in barter trade. Soviet and Chinese border guards celebrated the holidays of May 1 and November 7 together. And only when disagreements arose between the leadership of the CPSU and the CPC, the situation on the border began to escalate - the question of revising the borders arose.
During the 1964 consultations, it became clear that Mao was demanding that Moscow recognize the border treaties as “unequal,” as Vladimir Lenin had done. The next step should be the transfer of 1.5 million square meters to China. km of “previously occupied lands”. “For us, such a formulation of the issue was unacceptable,” writes Professor Yuri Gelenovich, who took part in negotiations with the Chinese in 1964, 1969 and 1979. True, the head of the Chinese state, Liu Shaoqi, proposed starting negotiations without preconditions and basing the delimitation in river areas on the principle of drawing the border line along the fairway of navigable rivers. Nikita Khrushchev accepted Liu Shaoqi's proposal. But with one caveat - we can only talk about islands adjacent to the Chinese coast.
The stumbling block that did not allow the continuation of negotiations on water boundaries in 1964 was the Kazakevich channel near Khabarovsk. Khrushchev became stubborn, and the transfer of the disputed territories, including Damansky, did not take place.
Damansky Island with an area of about 0.74 square meters. km territorially belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. From the island to Khabarovsk – 230 km. The distance of the island from the Soviet coast is about 500 m, from the Chinese coast – about 70–300. From south to north, Damansky stretches for 1500–1800 m, its width reaches 600–700 m. It does not represent any economic or military-strategic value.
According to some sources, Damansky Island was formed on the Ussuri River only in 1915, after river water eroded the bridge with the Chinese shore. According to Chinese historians, the island as such appeared only in the summer of 1968 as a result of a flood, when a small piece of land was cut off from Chinese territory.
FISTS AND BUTTS
In winter, when the ice on the Ussuri became strong, the Chinese went out into the middle of the river, “armed” with portraits of Mao, Lenin and Stalin, demonstrating where, in their opinion, the border should be.
From a report to the headquarters of the Red Banner Far Eastern District: “On January 23, 1969, at 11.15, armed Chinese military personnel began to bypass Damansky Island. When asked to leave the territory, the violators began shouting, waving quotation books and fists. After some time they attacked our border guards..."
A. Skornyak, a direct participant in the events, recalls: “The hand-to-hand combat was brutal. The Chinese used shovels, iron rods, and sticks. Our guys fought back with the butts of their machine guns. Miraculously, there were no casualties. Despite the numerical superiority of the attackers, the border guards put them to flight. After this incident, clashes occurred on the ice every day. They always ended in fights. By the end of February, at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost there was not a single fighter “with a whole face”: “lanterns” under the eyes, broken noses, but a fighting mood. Every day there is such a “spectacle”. And the commanders are ahead. The head of the outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, and his political officer, Nikolai Buinevich, were healthy men. Many Chinese noses and jaws were twisted with rifle butts and fists. The Red Guards were afraid of them like hell and everyone shouted: “We will kill you first!”
The commander of the Iman border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov, constantly reported that at any moment the conflict could escalate into war. Moscow responded as in 1941: “Do not give in to provocations, resolve all issues peacefully!” And this means - with fists and butts. The border guards put on sheepskin coats and felt boots, took machine guns with one magazine (for a minute of battle) and went onto the ice. To boost morale, the Chinese were given a quotation book with the sayings of the Great Helmsman and a bottle of hanja (Chinese vodka). After taking the “doping,” the Chinese rushed hand-to-hand. Once, during a brawl, they managed to stun and drag two of our border guards into their territory. Then they were executed.
On February 19, the Chinese General Staff approved a plan codenamed “Retribution.” It said, in particular: “... if Soviet soldiers open fire on the Chinese side with small arms, respond with warning shots, and if the warning does not have the desired effect, give a “resolute rebuff in self-defense.”
Tension in the Damansky area increased gradually. At first, Chinese citizens simply went to the island. Then they started coming out with posters. Then sticks, knives, carbines and machine guns appeared... For the time being, communication between the Chinese and Soviet border guards was relatively peaceful, but in accordance with the inexorable logic of events, it quickly developed into verbal skirmishes and hand-to-hand brawls. The most fierce battle took place on January 22, 1969, as a result of which Soviet border guards recaptured several carbines from the Chinese. Upon inspection of the weapon, it turned out that the cartridges were already in the chambers. Soviet commanders clearly understood how tense the situation was and therefore constantly called on their subordinates to be especially vigilant. Preventive measures were taken - for example, the staff of each border post was increased to 50 people. Nevertheless, the events of March 2 were a complete surprise for the Soviet side. On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) crossed to Damansky and lay down on the western coast of the island.
The Chinese were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, as well as SKS carbines. The commanders had TT pistols. All Chinese weapons were made according to Soviet models. There were no documents or personal items in the Chinese's pockets. But everyone has a Mao quote book. To support the units that landed on Damansky, positions of recoilless rifles, heavy machine guns and mortars were equipped on the Chinese coast. Here the Chinese infantry with a total number of 200-300 people was waiting in the wings. At about 9.00 am, a Soviet border patrol passed through the island, but did not find the invading Chinese. An hour and a half later, at the Soviet post, observers noticed the movement of a group of armed people (up to 30 people) in the direction of Damansky and immediately reported this by telephone to the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, located 12 km south of the island. Head of the outpost st. Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov raised his subordinates to the gun. In three groups, in three vehicles - GAZ-69 (8 people), BTR-60PB (13 people) and GAZ-63 (12 people), Soviet border guards arrived at the scene.
Having dismounted, they moved towards the Chinese in two groups: the first was led across the ice by the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, the second by Sergeant V. Rabovich. The third group, led by St. Sergeant Yu. Babansky, driving a GAZ-63 car, fell behind and arrived at the scene 15 minutes later. Approaching the Chinese, I. Strelnikov protested about the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. In response, the first line of Chinese parted, and the second opened sudden machine-gun fire on Strelnikov’s group. Strelnikov’s group and the head of the outpost himself died immediately. Some of the attackers got up from their “beds” and rushed to attack a handful of Soviet soldiers from the second group, commanded by Yu. Rabovich. They took the fight and fired back literally to the last bullet. When the attackers reached the positions of Rabovich’s group, they finished off the wounded Soviet border guards with point-blank shots and cold steel. This shameful fact for the People's Liberation Army of China is evidenced by the documents of the Soviet medical commission. The only one who literally miraculously survived was Private G. Serebrov. Having regained consciousness in the hospital, he spoke about the last minutes of his friends’ lives. It was at this moment that the third group of border guards arrived in time under the command of Yu. Babansky.
Taking a position some distance behind their dying comrades, the border guards met the advancing Chinese with machine gun fire. The battle was unequal, there were fewer and fewer fighters left in the group, and ammunition quickly ran out. Fortunately, border guards from the neighboring Kulebyakina Sopka outpost, located 17-18 km north of Damansky, came to the aid of Babansky’s group, commanded by Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin. Having received a telephone message on the morning of March 2 about what was happening on the island, Bubenin put more than twenty soldiers in the armored personnel carrier and hastened to the rescue of the neighbors. At about 11.30 the armored personnel carrier reached Damansky. The border guards disembarked from the car and almost immediately encountered a large group of Chinese. A fight ensued. During the battle, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin was wounded and shell-shocked, but did not lose control of the battle. Leaving several soldiers at the site, led by junior sergeant V. Kanygin, he and four soldiers loaded into an armored personnel carrier and moved around the island, going behind the Chinese. The culmination of the battle came at the moment when Bubenin managed to destroy the Chinese command post. After this, the border violators began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded. This is how the first battle on Damansky ended. In the battle on March 2, 1969, the Soviet side lost 31 people killed - this is exactly the figure that was given at a press conference at the USSR Foreign Ministry on March 7, 1969. As for the Chinese losses, they are not reliably known, since the PLA General Staff has not yet made this information public. The Soviet border guards themselves estimated the total enemy losses at 100-150 soldiers and commanders.
After the battle on March 2, 1969, reinforced squads of Soviet border guards constantly came to Damansky - numbering at least 10 people, with a sufficient amount of ammunition. Sappers carried out mining on the island in case of an attack by Chinese infantry. In the rear, at a distance of several kilometers from Damansky, the 135th motorized rifle division of the Far Eastern Military District was deployed - infantry, tanks, artillery, Grad multiple rocket launchers. The 199th Verkhne-Udinsky Regiment of this division took a direct part in further events.
The Chinese were also accumulating forces for the next offensive: in the area of the island, the 24th Infantry Regiment of the People's Liberation Army of China, which consisted of up to 5,000 soldiers and commanders, was preparing for battle! On March 15, noticing the revival on the Chinese side, a detachment of Soviet border guards consisting of 45 people in 4 armored personnel carriers entered the island. Another 80 border guards concentrated on the shore, ready to support their comrades. At about 9.00 on March 15, a loudspeaker installation started working on the Chinese side. A clear female voice in clear Russian called on the Soviet border guards to leave “Chinese territory”, abandon “revisionism”, etc. On the Soviet shore they also turned on a loudspeaker.
The broadcast was conducted in Chinese and in rather simple words: come to your senses before it’s too late, before you are the sons of those who liberated China from the Japanese invaders. After some time, there was silence on both sides, and closer to 10.00, Chinese artillery and mortars (from 60 to 90 barrels) began shelling the island. At the same time, 3 companies of Chinese infantry (each with 100-150 people) went on the attack. The battle on the island was focal in nature: scattered groups of border guards continued to repel attacks by the Chinese, who significantly outnumbered the defenders. According to eyewitnesses, the course of the battle resembled a pendulum: each side pressed back the enemy as reserves approached. At the same time, however, the ratio in manpower was always approximately 10:1 in favor of the Chinese. At about 15.00 an order was received to leave the island. After this, the arriving Soviet reserves tried to carry out several counterattacks in order to expel the border violators, but they were unsuccessful: the Chinese thoroughly fortified themselves on the island and met the attackers with heavy fire.
Only at this point was it decided to use artillery, since there was a real threat of the complete capture of Damansky by the Chinese. The order to attack the Chinese coast was given by the first deputy. Commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General P.M. Plotnikov. At 17.00, a separate rocket division of BM-21 "Grad" installations under the command of M.T. Vashchenko launched a fire strike on Chinese concentration areas and their firing positions.
This is how the then top-secret 40-barreled Grad, capable of releasing all the ammunition in 20 seconds, was used for the first time. After 10 minutes of the artillery attack, there was nothing left of the Chinese division. A significant part of the Chinese soldiers in Damansky and adjacent territory were destroyed by a firestorm (according to Chinese data, more than 6 thousand). There was immediately a buzz in the foreign press that the Russians had used an unknown secret weapon, either lasers, or flamethrowers, or who knows what. (And the hunt began for God knows what, which was crowned with success in the distant south of Africa 6 years later. But that’s another story...)
At the same time, a cannon artillery regiment equipped with 122 mm howitzers opened fire on identified targets. The artillery fired for 10 minutes. The raid turned out to be extremely accurate: the shells destroyed Chinese reserves, mortars, stacks of shells, etc. Radio interception data indicated hundreds of dead PLA soldiers. At 17.10, motorized riflemen (2 companies and 3 tanks) and border guards in 4 armored personnel carriers went on the attack. After a stubborn battle, the Chinese began to retreat from the island. Then they tried to recapture Damansky, but three of their attacks ended in complete failure. After this, the Soviet soldiers retreated to their shores, and the Chinese made no further attempts to take possession of the island.
The Chinese kept harassing fire on the island for another half hour until they completely subsided. According to some estimates, they could have lost at least 700 people from the Grad attack. The provocateurs did not dare to continue. There is also information that 50 Chinese soldiers and officers were shot for cowardice.
The next day, the first deputy chairman of the USSR KGB, Colonel General Nikolai Zakharov, arrived at Damansky. He personally crawled the entire island (length 1500–1800, width 500–600 m, area 0.74 sq. km), studied all the circumstances of the unprecedented battle. After this, Zakharov told Bubenin: “Son, I went through the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War, the fight against the OUN in Ukraine. I saw everything. But I haven’t seen anything like this!”
And General Babansky said that the most remarkable episode in the hour and a half battle was associated with the actions of junior sergeant Vasily Kanygin and the cook of the outpost, Private Nikolai Puzyrev. They managed to destroy the largest number of Chinese soldiers (later they calculated - almost a platoon). Moreover, when they ran out of cartridges, Puzyrev crawled up to the killed enemies and took away their ammunition (each attacker had six magazines for his machine gun, while the Soviet border guards had two), which allowed this pair of heroes to continue the battle...
The head of the outpost, Bubenin, at some point in the brutal firefight, sat on an armored personnel carrier equipped with KPVT and PKT turret machine guns, and, according to him, killed an entire infantry company of PLA soldiers who were moving to the island to reinforce the violators already fighting. Using machine guns, the senior lieutenant suppressed firing points and crushed the Chinese with his wheels. When the armored personnel carrier was hit, he moved to another and continued to kill enemy soldiers until this vehicle was hit by an armor-piercing shell. As Bubenin recalled, after the first shell shock at the beginning of the skirmish, “I fought the entire subsequent battle in the subconscious, being in some other world.” The officer's army sheepskin coat was torn into shreds on the back by enemy bullets.
By the way, such fully armored BTR-60PB were used in combat for the first time. The lessons of the conflict were taken into account as it developed. Already on March 15, PLA soldiers went into battle armed with a significant number of hand grenade launchers. For in order to suppress a new provocation, not two armored personnel carriers were pulled up to Damansky, but 11, four of which operated directly on the island, and 7 were in reserve.
This may indeed seem incredible, “obviously exaggerated,” but the facts are that after the end of the battle, 248 corpses of PLA soldiers and officers were collected on the island (and then handed over to the Chinese side).
The generals, both Bubenin and Babansky, are still modest. In a conversation with me three years ago, not one of them claimed a figure for Chinese losses greater than that officially recognized, although it is clear that the Chinese managed to drag dozens of those killed to their territory. In addition, the border guards successfully suppressed enemy firing points found on the Chinese bank of the Ussuri. So the losses of the attackers could well have been 350–400 people.
It is significant that the Chinese themselves have not yet declassified the figures for losses on March 2, 1969, which look truly murderous against the backdrop of the damage suffered by the Soviet “green caps” - 31 people. It is only known that in Baoqing County there is a memorial cemetery where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who did not return alive from Damansky on March 2 and 15 rest. Of these, five were awarded the title of Hero of the People's Republic of China. Obviously, there are other burials.
In just two battles (the second Chinese attack occurred on March 15), 52 Soviet border guards were killed, including four officers, including the head of the Imansky (now Dalnerechensky) border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov. He, along with Strelnikov, Bubenin and Babansky, was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). 94 people were wounded, including 9 officers (Bubenin was shell-shocked, and then wounded). In addition, seven motorized riflemen who participated in supporting the “green caps” in the second battle laid down their lives.
According to the memoirs of General Babansky, regular violations of the border by the Chinese without the use of weapons “became a standard situation for us. And when the battle began, we felt that we didn’t have enough ammunition, there were no reserves, and the supply of ammunition was not guaranteed.” Babansky also claims that the Chinese construction of a road to the border, which they explained as the development of the area for agricultural purposes, “we took at face value.” The observed movement of Chinese troops, explained by the exercises, was perceived in the same way. Although observation was carried out at night, “our observers did not see anything: we had only one night vision device, and even that allowed us to see something at a distance of no more than 50–70 meters.” Further more. On March 2, army exercises were held at the training grounds for all troops stationed in the area. A significant part of the border guard officers were also involved in them; only one officer remained at the outposts. One gets the impression that, unlike the Soviet military, the Chinese intelligence was carried out well. “Before the reinforcements reached us, they had to return to their place of permanent deployment to bring the equipment into combat readiness,” Babansky also said. “Therefore, the arrival of the reserve took longer than expected. The estimated time would have been enough for us; we already held out for an hour and a half. And when the army men reached their lines, deployed forces and means, almost everything on the island was already over.”
America saved China from the nuclear wrath of the Soviet Union
In the late 1960s, America saved China from the nuclear wrath of the Soviet Union: this is stated in a series of articles published in Beijing in the supplement to the official publication of the CCP, the journal Historical Reference, Le Figaro reports. The conflict, which began in March 1969 with a series of clashes on the Soviet-Chinese border, led to the mobilization of troops, the newspaper writes. According to the publication, the USSR warned its allies in Eastern Europe about a planned nuclear strike. On August 20, the Soviet ambassador in Washington warned Kissinger and demanded that the United States remain neutral, but the White House deliberately leaked it, and on August 28, information about Soviet plans appeared in the Washington Post. In September and October, tensions reached a fever pitch and the Chinese population was ordered to dig shelters.
The article goes on to say that Nixon, who considered the USSR the main threat, did not need a too weak China. In addition, he feared the consequences of nuclear explosions for 250 thousand American soldiers in Asia. On October 15, Kissinger warned the Soviet ambassador that the United States would not stand by if attacked and would respond by attacking 130 Soviet cities. Five days later, Moscow canceled all plans for a nuclear strike, and negotiations began in Beijing: the crisis was over, the newspaper writes.
According to the Chinese publication, Washington’s actions were partly “revenge” for the events of five years ago, when the USSR refused to join efforts to prevent China from developing nuclear weapons, saying that the Chinese nuclear program did not pose a threat. On October 16, 1964, Beijing successfully conducted its first nuclear test. The magazine recounts three more occasions when China was threatened with nuclear attack, this time by the United States: during the Korean War, as well as during the conflict between mainland China and Taiwan in March 1955 and August 1958.
“Researcher Liu Chenshan, who describes the Nixon episode, does not specify on what archival sources he is based. He admits that other experts disagree with his statements. The publication of his article in an official publication suggests that he had access to serious sources, and his article was reread several times,” the publication writes in conclusion.
Political settlement of the conflict
On September 11, 1969, negotiations between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin and the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai took place at Beijing airport. The meeting lasted three and a half hours. The main result of the discussion was an agreement to stop hostile actions on the Soviet-Chinese border and to stop troops at the lines they occupied at the time of the negotiations. It must be said that the formulation “the parties remain where they were before” was proposed by Zhou Enlai, and Kosygin immediately agreed with it. And it was at this moment that Damansky Island became de facto Chinese. The fact is that after the end of the fighting, the ice began to melt and therefore the border guards’ access to Damansky turned out to be difficult. We decided to provide fire cover for the island. From now on, any attempt by the Chinese to land on Damansky was stopped by sniper and machine-gun fire.
On September 10, 1969, the border guards received an order to stop firing. Immediately after this, the Chinese came to the island and settled there. On the same day, a similar story occurred on Kirkinsky Island, located 3 km north of Damansky. Thus, on the day of the Beijing negotiations on September 11, the Chinese were already on the islands of Damansky and Kirkinsky. A.N. Kosygin’s agreement with the wording “the parties remain where they were until now” meant the actual surrender of the islands to China. Apparently, the order to cease fire on September 10 was given in order to create a favorable background for the start of negotiations. The Soviet leaders knew very well that the Chinese would land on Damansky, and they deliberately went for it. Obviously, the Kremlin decided that sooner or later, a new border would have to be drawn along the fairways of the Amur and Ussuri. And if so, then there is no point in holding on to the islands, which will go to the Chinese anyway. Soon after the completion of the negotiations, A.N. Kosygin and Zhou Enlai exchanged letters. In them they agreed to begin work on preparing a non-aggression pact.
While Mao Zedong was alive, negotiations on border issues did not produce results. He died in 1976. Four years later, the “gang of four” led by the widow of the “helmsman” was dispersed. In the 80s, relations between our countries were normalized. In 1991 and 1994, the parties managed to define the border along its entire length, with the exception of the islands near Khabarovsk. Damansky Island was officially transferred to China in 1991. In 2004, it was possible to conclude an agreement regarding the islands near Khabarovsk and on the Argun River. Today, the Russian-Chinese border has been established along its entire length - about 4.3 thousand kilometers.
ETERNAL MEMORY TO THE FALLEN HEROES OF THE BORDER! GLORY TO THE VETERANS OF 1969!
The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
46 years ago, in March 1969, the two most powerful socialist powers at that time - the USSR and the People's Republic of China - almost started a full-scale war over a piece of land called Damansky Island. 
1. The Damansky island on the Ussuri River was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai and had an area of 0.74 km². It was located a little closer to the Chinese coast than to ours. However, the border did not run in the middle of the river, but, in accordance with the Beijing treaty of 1860, along the Chinese bank.
Damansky - view from the Chinese coast 
2. The conflict at Damansky occurred 20 years after the formation of the People's Republic of China. Until the 1950s, China was a weak country with a poor population. With the help of the USSR, the Celestial Empire was not only able to unite, but began to develop rapidly, strengthening the army and creating the conditions necessary for modernizing the economy. However, after Stalin's death, a period of cooling began in Soviet-Chinese relations. Mao Zedong now claimed almost the role of the leading world leader of the communist movement, with which Nikita Khrushchev could not agree. At the same time, the policy of the Cultural Revolution carried out by Zedong constantly required keeping society in suspense, creating ever new images of the enemy both within the country and outside it, and the process of “de-Stalinization” in the USSR generally threatened the cult of the “great Mao” himself, which gradually took shape in China. As a result, in 1960, the CPC officially announced the “wrong” course of the CPSU, relations between the countries deteriorated to the limit and conflicts often began to occur on the border of more than 7.5 thousand kilometers.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
3. On the night of March 2, 1969, about 300 Chinese soldiers crossed to Damansky. They remained unnoticed for several hours; Soviet border guards received a signal about an armed group of up to 30 people only at 10:32 in the morning.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
4. 32 border guards under the command of the head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, went to the scene of events. Approaching the Chinese military, Strelnikov demanded that they leave Soviet territory, but in response they opened fire from small arms. Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov and the border guards who followed him died, only one soldier managed to survive.
This is how the famous Daman conflict began, which was not written about anywhere for a long time, but which everyone knew about.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
5. Shooting was heard at the neighboring Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost. Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin went to the rescue with 20 border guards and one armored personnel carrier. The Chinese attacked aggressively, but retreated after a few hours. Residents of the neighboring village of Nizhnemikhailovka came to the aid of the wounded.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
6. That day, 31 Soviet border guards were killed and another 14 military personnel were injured. According to the KGB commission, the losses of the Chinese side amounted to 248 people.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
7. On March 3, a demonstration took place near the Soviet embassy in Beijing; on March 7, the Chinese Embassy in Moscow was picketed.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
8. Weapons captured from the Chinese
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
9. On the morning of March 15, the Chinese again went on the offensive. They increased the size of their forces to an infantry division, reinforced by reservists. The “human wave” attacks continued for an hour. After a fierce battle, the Chinese managed to push back the Soviet soldiers.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
10. Then, to support the defenders, a tank platoon headed by the head of the Iman border detachment, which included the Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya and Kulebyakiny Sopki outposts, Colonel Leonov, launched a counterattack. 
11. But, as it turned out, the Chinese were prepared for such a turn of events and had a sufficient number of anti-tank weapons. Due to their heavy fire, our counterattack failed.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
12. The failure of the counterattack and the loss of the newest T-62 combat vehicle with secret equipment finally convinced the Soviet command that the forces brought into the battle were not enough to defeat the Chinese side, which was very seriously prepared.
Photo: archive of Ogonyok magazine 
13. Then the forces of the 135th Motorized Rifle Division deployed along the river came into play, whose command ordered its artillery, including a separate BM-21 Grad division, to open fire on the Chinese positions on the island. This was the first time that Grad missile launchers were used in battle, the impact of which decided the outcome of the battle. 
14. Soviet troops retreated to their shores, and the Chinese side did not take any more hostile actions. 
15. In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 soldiers and 4 officers killed or died from wounds, and 94 soldiers and 9 officers were wounded. The losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people. 
16. For their heroism, four servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov and Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin and Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.
In the photo in the foreground: Colonel D. Leonov, lieutenants V. Bubenin, I. Strelnikov, V. Shorokhov; in the background: personnel of the first border post. 1968
The largest armed conflict in the 20th century between China and the USSR occurred in 1969. For the first time, the general Soviet public was shown the atrocities of the Chinese invaders on Damansky Island. However, people learned the details of the tragedy only many years later.
Why did the Chinese abuse the border guards?
According to one version, the deterioration of relations between the Soviet Union and China began after unsuccessful negotiations on the fate of Damansky Island, which arose in the fairway of the Ussuri River as a result of the shallowing of a small part of the river. According to the Paris Peace Agreement of 1919, the state border of the countries was determined along the middle of the river fairway, but if historical circumstances indicated otherwise, then the border could be determined based on priority - if one of the countries was the first to colonize the territory, then it was given preference when resolving the territorial issue .
Strength tests
It was a priori assumed that the island created by nature should have come under the jurisdiction of the Chinese side, but due to unsuccessful negotiations between the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev and the leader of the PRC Mao Zedong, the final document on this issue was not signed. The Chinese side began to use the “island” issue to improve relations with the American side. A number of Chinese historians argued that the Chinese were going to give the Americans a pleasant surprise, to show the seriousness of the break in relations with the USSR.
For many years, the small island - 0.74 square kilometers - was a tasty morsel that was used to test tactical and psychological maneuvers, the main purpose of which was to test the strength and adequacy of the reaction of Soviet border guards. Minor conflicts have occurred here before, but it never came to an open clash. In 1969, the Chinese committed more than five thousand recorded violations of the Soviet border.
The first landing went unnoticed
A secret directive of the Chinese military leadership is known, according to which a special operation plan was developed for the armed seizure of the Damansky Peninsula. The first from the Chinese side to move to break through was the landing force, which took place on the night of March 1-2, 1969. They took advantage of the prevailing weather conditions. Heavy snow fell, which allowed 77 Chinese soldiers to pass unnoticed along the frozen Ussuri River. They were dressed in white camouflage robes and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. This group was able to cross the border so secretly that its passage was unnoticed. And only the second group of Chinese, numbering 33 people, was discovered by an observer - a Soviet border guard. A message about a major violation was transmitted to the 2nd Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya outpost, which belongs to the Iman border detachment.
The border guards took a cameraman with them - Private Nikolai Petrov filmed the events taking place with a camera until the last moment. But the border guards did not have an accurate idea of the number of violators. It was assumed that their number did not exceed three dozen. Therefore, 32 Soviet border guards were sent to eliminate it. Then they split up and moved into the area of the violation in two groups. The first task is to neutralize the intruders peacefully, the second task is to provide reliable cover. The first group was led by twenty-eight-year-old Ivan Strelnikov, who was already preparing to enter the military academy in Moscow. As cover, the second group was led by Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich.
The Chinese clearly understood in advance the task of destroying the Soviet border guards. While the Soviet border guards planned to resolve the conflict peacefully, as was the case more than once: after all, minor violations constantly occurred in this area.
A raised Chinese hand is a signal to attack
Strelnikov, as the most experienced commander and head of the outpost, was ordered to negotiate. When Ivan Strelnikov approached the violators and offered to leave Soviet territory peacefully, the Chinese officer raised his hand - this was the signal to open fire - the first line of Chinese fired the first salvo. Strelnikov was the first to die. Seven border guards accompanying Strelnikov died almost immediately.
Private Petrov filmed everything that was happening until the last minute.
Gray hair and gouged out eyes
Rabovich's covering group was unable to come to the aid of their comrades: they were ambushed and died one after another. All border guards were killed. The Chinese were already mocking the dead border guard with all their sophistication. The photographs show that his eyes were gouged out and his face was mutilated with bayonets.
The surviving corporal Pavel Akulov faced a terrible fate - torture and painful death. They captured him, tortured him for a long time, and then threw him out of a helicopter into Soviet territory only in April. Doctors counted 28 puncture wounds on the body of the deceased; it was clear that he had been tortured for a long time - all the hair on his head had been pulled out, and a small strand was all gray.
True, one Soviet border guard managed to survive in this battle. Private Gennady Serebrov was seriously wounded in the back, lost consciousness, and a repeated blow to the chest with a bayonet was not fatal. He managed to survive and wait for help from his comrades: the commander of the neighboring outpost Vitaly Bubenin and his subordinates, as well as the group of junior sergeant Vitaly Babansky, were able to provide serious resistance to the Chinese side. Having a small supply of forces and weapons, they forced the Chinese to retreat.
31 dead border guards put up worthy resistance to the enemy at the cost of their lives.
Losik and Grad stopped the conflict
The second round of the conflict occurred on March 14. By this time, the Chinese military deployed a five-thousandth regiment, the Soviet side - the 135th motorized rifle division, equipped with Grad installations, which were used after receiving a number of conflicting orders: the party leadership - the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee - urgently demanded that Soviet troops be removed and not brought into island. And as soon as this was accomplished, the Chinese immediately occupied the territory. Then the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Oleg Losik, who went through the Second World War, ordered the Grad multiple launch rocket system to open fire on the enemy: in one salvo, 40 shells within 20 seconds were capable of destroying the enemy within a radius of four hectares. After such a shelling, the Chinese military no longer took any large-scale military action.
The final point in the conflict was put by the politicians of the two countries: already in September 1969, an agreement was reached that neither Chinese nor Soviet troops would occupy the disputed island. This meant that Damansky de facto passed to China; in 1991, de jure the island became Chinese.
